Workshop on Engaging Citizens to Strengthen Accountability and Prevent Corruption

Start Date:

Oct 26, 2011

End Date:

Oct 27, 2011

Venue:

Palmeraie Golf Palace Complex, Marrakesh

Description:

This workshop was co-organized by the Division for Public Administration and Development Management of the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), in partnership with the Division for Treaty Affairs of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), with the aim to build capacities among participants from governments, civil society, the private sector and academia, to enhance the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), in particular its chapter II on Preventive Measures, through the sharing of experiences and lessons learned among practitioners, experts and researchers.

The objectives of the workshop were to:

(a) Strengthen the participants’ capacities to formulate programs and strategies to enhance public sector accountability and prevent corruption, including the use of modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT);
(b) Provide participants with conceptual frameworks and tools to improve accountability and prevent corruption through citizens’ engagement, including the use of ICT tools;
(c) Identify good practices in accountability and corruption prevention, especially in the case of participatory approaches, as well as obstacles and key challenges;
(d) Strengthen the exchange of experiences networks on accountability and corruption prevention among experts and practitioners, with a view to enhance the dissemination of knowledge on citizens’ engagement in preventing corruption for better public service delivery ; and
(e) Help to identify substantive expertise to support States’ capacity with regard to citizens engagement in preventing corruption for better public service delivery, in particular also to advance implementation of Chapter II of the UNCAC.
The workshop was one of the special events organized in the margins of the Fourth Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the UNCAC. The overall conference gathered more than 1500 persons from over 140 countries.

In particular, this workshop on citizens engagement to counter corruption in services related to the Millennium Development Goals was attended by approximately 120 experts, practitioners, researchers and individuals interested in the engagement of citizens by the public administration from national and local governments, civil society, academia and the private sector. They came from 33 countries around the world (23 developing countries and 10 developed), as well as from eight international organizations: Council of Europe, International IDEA, OECD, OSCE, UNDESA, UNECA, UNODC and UN-OIOS. The workshop also beneffited from the participation of Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Secretary Generals from Ministries of Public Service or equivalents, from Egypt, Mexico, Morocco and Zimbabwe, and the participation of an Under-Secretary General and two Directors from the UN, as well as by three members of the UN Committee of Experts in Public Administration (CEPA), from Jordan, Morocco and the United Kingdom. The workshop had interpretation in English, French, and Arabic.

The submission of the workshop participants to the Plenary of the 4th Conference of State Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), summarizing key considerations on the importance of engaging citizens in the fight against corruption, is included below for easy reference, together with the papers and presentations submitted by the speakers as background materials for the workshop. The conclusions and recommendations reached by all participants at the end of the workshop, will be included in the workshop report, to be distributed online in the following weeks.

Workshop on Engaging Citizens to Strengthen Accountability and Prevent Corruption

4th Session of the Conference of State Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption to take place in Marrakesh Morocco on 24-28 October 2011 In the context of the conference a workshop will be devoted to engaging citizens to prevent corruption in the provision of public services to citizens